Pages

Friday, 23 March 2012

This morning, I had one of my regular reflexology sessions with Rob Buckle (by the way, if you live in or near the South Birmingham area of the UK, I can highly recommend him for Reflexology or Reiki!).

At the end of the session, Rob left the room to fetch a glass of water and as I gazed out of the conservatory into his garden, I spotted a Woodpecker. I've never seen a Woodpecker in real life, but the distinctive bright red patch at the bottom of the body, near the tail is a giveaway.

It's a distinctive and impressive bird. My eye was first caught with the colour - that patch of red is almost luminous, but then the way it moved up the tree, keeping the stance like the image above, was pure Woodpecker (from memories of seeing them on TV).

Friday, 16 March 2012

All around me, the signs of spring abound. One of my friends, Sarah, has just blogged about her first nettle and root soup of the season - I want to be 'out there' doing stuff, yet I am caged, kept within myself by events beyond my control.

In life, as in nature (because life is nature, is life), there are cycles. Some cycles are perpetual in the sense that summer will follow spring, which follows winter, which follows autumn, which follows summer and so on. Other cycles have a start and an end, and are complete within one cycle, although they are part of bigger cycles that all link up. I am referring to the cycle of life and in particular, to our wonderful canine companion, Albert, who it seems, is approaching the end of his physical days on the earth.

A few days ago, he was diagnosed with degenerative liver disease. He's been put on medication to support his liver, which we are supplementing with some herbal tablets, but the vet's anxiety is that he does not have much good liver left to work with. The vet is understanding, in fact very understanding, and is not recommending further invasive tests on the basis that we would learn little that could benefit Albert.

He might respond the treatment and rally round, or he may not. We'll know in the next 10 days or so where this is heading. I've really been very upset at the prospect of loosing him - he's been woven into the fabric of our lives for the past 7 and half years. He's slept with us on our bed every night, he comes on holiday with us, everything we do, or everywhere we go is centred around Albert not being left alone!

I'm not afraid of death - I understand that it is a part of life, and Albert being 14 or 15 years old has lived the expected life of a dog. But I am afraid of the void, of the loss of company, of the loss of familiarity, the loss of routine that he has brought us. Perhaps these are selfish concerns, but they are the ones I have.

I wish I could explain to him that the tablets he so dislikes taking are for his benefit and will help him. I wish he could tell me how he feels, where his pain is, and perhaps, when he's had enough and wishes to slip away.

Yet, as I focus myself on Albert, the other cycles of life continue, unaffected by my personal crisis. In the grand scheme of what's going on in the world, how small are these events, but depending on where you stand, they can be the biggest thing in the world.

Sunday, 11 March 2012

Mark Boyle started an experiment a few years ago - he decided to live without money.

Now there are many people who would wish to find fault with what Mark is doing. They will say that he's not really living without money because he uses things that others have given him, and that they used money to buy them in the first place. They might say that working in a pub and being 'paid' in food means that people have to earn money to buy drinks and meals in order for the pub landlord to 'give' Mark the food. Fair enough, but if you think Mark and his book is just about money, then you've missed the point. Mark studied marketing and in reality, he now admits, that he uses the moneyless tag to get people's attention - what he is really talking about is respect for the earth - a new way of living.

I read Mark's book at the end of 2010 and it's a really good read. I don't pretend for one minute that I would want to live the life that Mark does, but there are many lessons to be taken from it.

Here's an interesting little tale, featured on Mark's 'Freeconomy' website:

The Businessman and the Forest Gardener.

One day a man, let's call him Martin, was pottering around in a beautiful forest garden in the middle of the English countryside, harvesting some autumn olives, medlars, James Grieve apples, walnuts and a whole range of unusual leafs. Martin loved forest gardening - not only was he working in complete harmony with Nature, it required only a fraction of the labour that conventional agriculture took, whilst still producing more than enough food for his family of four. But, truth be known, all he was really doing was enjoying some afternoon sunshine and eating fruits picked straight from the tree!

A businessman just happened to walk past this bountiful garden. He noticed the forest gardener was sitting in a little clearing under a plum tree, and decided to find out why this gardener was lazing around in his one acre forest garden instead of working harder to make a living for himself and his family.

"You aren't going to grow much food that way," said the businessman to the forest gardener, "you should be working hard rather than lying under the tree!" The forest gardener looked up at the businessman, smiled and replied, "And what will my reward be?"

"Well, you can buy more land so that you can grow more vegetables and fruit!" was the businessman's answer.

"And then what will my reward be?" asked the forest gardener, still smiling. The businessman replied, "You will make money and you'll be able to buy a tractor and other labour saving machines, which will then result in larger harvests of fruit and veg!"

"And then what will my reward be?" asked the forest gardener again.

The businessman was beginning to get a little irritated with the forest gardener's questions. "You can buy better machinery, and hire some people to work for you!" he said. "And then what will my reward be?" repeated the forest gardener.

The businessman was getting angry. "Don't you understand? You can build up a fleet of tractors and combine harvesters, buy more land, convert it all to intensive agriculture and let all your employees grow your fruit, nuts and veg for you!" Once again the forest gardener asked, "And then what will my reward be?"

The businessman was red with rage and shouted at the forest gardener, "Don't you understand that you can become so rich that you will never have to work for your living again! You can spend all the rest of your days sitting in this garden, looking at the sunset. You won't have a care in the world!"

The forest gardener, still smiling, looked up and said, "And what do you think I'm doing right now?"

Here's a little collection of phrases advocating simplicity that I found on the internet (can't actually remember where I copied these from - oops!). Through simplicity, we can grow within ourselves, without being weighed down by the chattels of our lives.

Simplicity is something we should strive for, but also recognise that a) it's not for everyone, all of the time, and b) it's not necessarily easy! Like Einstein says, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler".